ASDES Social Group Visit from Jonathan Hanna

On the 31st of July 2015, we welcomed Jonathan to the ASDES Swansea social group. Jonathan works in partnership with Monique Post as a speaker and educator helping to raise awareness on all aspects of living with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder; his organisation is called In-Awe. Jonathan has participated in many of our previous training and information days at ASDES. Many members of the social group were keen to meet Jonathan after hearing about his previous visits, so I discussed arranging a visit with the theme of ‘creating self-belief’.

Jonathan spoke to the group about his own background and the work in which he was currently involved. Many members attended the group and were able to listen and discuss their own experiences with him. It proved to be a very positive and warm-hearted interaction, with Jonathan able to offer many useful and practical strategies for coming to terms with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder diagnosis and being able to live the life that makes you happy. Jonathan was able to use many of his own experiences to demonstrate how best to overcome barriers to achieving goals and he also offered to keep in touch with members of the group.

Everyone told me that they had really enjoyed and benefited from his session and it stimulated much conversation about individual plans for the future. Rachel and Bethan accompanied Jonathan back to the train station and shared a coffee with him. I am sure that Jonathan’s very positive outlook and great sense of humour deeply affected everyone present and provided much inspiration.

We are currently meeting in Indycube and have discovered that we can also visit the coffee shop on the ground floor to enjoy our refreshments, a considerable plus as everyone has really missed this element of the social group that we enjoyed at Tapestri.

Maureen Maunder

Jonathan Hanna and Monique Post are the team behind InAwe. InAwe is a partnership that supports people with ASD and offers a wide range of services catered to the unique needs of each person or organization that they work with, from the unique perspectives of two people who have an autism diagnosis.
Learn more about their services at: